World's Greatest Grandpa
by hallow777
Summary: Futurefic. Rick, Kate, and their daughter are waiting for Alexis to arrive for Christmas, but what they don't know is that she has a surprise for them. Fanfic Christmas Present for annaluvsu6761.


**This can be considered a continuation of 'Losing and Gaining' but it can stand on it's own as well so you don't have to have read that one before this.**

**This is a late Fanfiction Christmas Present for annaluvsu6761, hope you like it!**

**Seriously, we need a 'fluff' genre...**

**I do NOT own Castle.**

* * *

"Mommy, mommy! Look! I put all the decorations on the tree all by myself!"

Kate Beckett looked up from the cookie dough she was mixing and walked around the kitchen counter to see that her three year old daughter had indeed put _all_ the ornaments on the tree.

"That's really good honey, but what about the rest of the tree?"

Little Emily Johanna Castle looked up and her mouth formed a little 'O' as she realized that she had put every single ornament on the bottom half of the tree, completely forgetting about the top half since she couldn't reach that high.

"I fix it! I fix it!"

"I'll fix it, Em. It's I'll fix it." Kate gently corrected the child.

"No, no! I fix it! You go!" Emily started pushing on her mother's legs, trying to get her to go back into the kitchen, thinking that Kate meant she would fix the tree.

Knowing how stubborn her daughter could be, Kate went willing back to her cookie making before leaning over the counter to ask Emily how she planned to fix the tree if she couldn't reach the higher branches.

Her question was answered by Emily's shout as she ran towards the study. "Daddy! Daddy! I need help!"

A few minutes later she came back into the living/dining room where the tree was, firmly pulling her father along by the hand.

"Alright Em, what do you need help..." Castle trailed off as he spotted the Christmas tree and it's lack of ornaments on the top, before turning to find his wife standing in the doorway to the kitchen and raising a questioning eyebrow.

"I heard her playing over here but I just thought she was playing with one of the Christmas presents you let her open early." Kate said with a shrug before going back into the kitchen to finish up the batch of cookies she was working on.

Castle plopped down by the tree and instructed his daughter to take off some of the ornaments and put them in a pile, while he did the same. Once the bottom half of the tree wasn't so over crowded, he picked her up and they started decorating the top half of the tree.

* * *

A week after they finally got the tree up and decorated, it was Christmas Eve and Little Emily was extremely excited.

The little girl was running around the living room, unable to stay still, constantly asking if 'they were here yet'.

Finally after being asked the same question ten times, Kate spoke up. "Em, when you hear the doorbell, that means they are here, okay? But until you hear it, they aren't here so stop asking, please."

Emily thought about it for a minute before nodding and going to play with her favorite teddy bear, finally being silent for once.

Both Kate and Castle gave a sigh of relief and were very content to lounge around on the couch and mindlessly watch TV until their guests arrived.

Or they were, until their daughter's head popped up and she turned towards them. "I think I heard the doorbell!"

"Oh please Alexis get here soon before she drives me insane." Kate sent up a prayer and hoped she would still be sane by the time Alexis and her husband arrived, while Castle just laughed at her and reassured his daughter that no, the doorbell hadn't rang.

It was times like these that made Kate wonder how she had survived being married to Richard Castle for nearly five years, and dealing with their daughter, who was as stubborn as Kate and as creative and mischievous as Rick, for three years. And that's not even counting the _fun_ time they had while she had been pregnant with Emily.

But then, as she watched her husband roll around on the floor with their daughter, distracting her with some random game, she knew that no matter what, it was all worth it.

Emily was just getting ready to ask again, when the doorbell finally rang. Both father and daughter ran towards the door, Emily hopping up and down, waiting for him to get the door open. When he finally did, Emily threw herself into Alexis' legs, nearly knocking her down, but the older girl was expecting it and managed to stay on her feet.

"Lexi!"

"Hello to you too, squirt." Alexis said as she leaned down and picked up her younger sister, then greeted her dad.

"Welcome back, pumpkin. You too, Ash." Castle greeted both Alexis and her husband, then led them inside where Kate greeted them both as well.

Alexis had been married to her high school sweetheart Ashley for almost a year now, and though Castle had been hesitant about his little girl getting married, he was glad it was to Ashley.

They spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on everything that had been going on in each other's lives. They talked to each other daily, but it was the first time they had actually seen each other face to face in a while since both Alexis and Ashley's jobs were in Boston, whereas Kate and Castle still lived in New York.

Soon it was time for bed, and after setting out cookies and milk for Santa, Emily was finally asleep.

The adults stayed up and talked for a little longer before they all headed off to bed as well, knowing that Emily would have them up at six in the morning to open presents.

Sure enough, six o'clock on the dot, Kate was awakened by a small body jumping on the bed.

"Mommy! Mommy! Get up! Santa's been here!"

"Em...It's too early..." Kate mumbled, curling back into the covers that were quickly ripped away from her. Knowing Emily wasn't nearly strong enough to do that, she settled a glare on her husband who was entirely too cheery and excited for this early in the morning.

"Come on, Kate! You can sleep later, it's Christmas!"

"You are just as bad as our _three_ year old daughter, Castle." Despite being married for as many years as they had, she still had the habit of calling him by his last name. Though there were certain _other_ times when she used his first name.

"Mommy is awake, time to go wake Alexis!" Castle mentioned to his daughter who took off yelling down the hallway to the guestroom where Alexis and Ashley were sleeping.

"Our daughter has a lovely set of lungs." Castle commented when he could hear her yelling to get her older sister out of bed, all the way down the hall.

"Good thing we moved into an actual house after we found out I was pregnant with her, we would have gotten kicked out of your old apartment in no time."

"So true."

A few minutes later, Emily came running back into the room, announcing that Alexis and Ashley were awake so it was time to open presents.

Castle ran off downstairs with his daughter while Kate took a slower pace and met Alexis and Ashley in the hallway where they made their way sleepily down the stairs, coming to a stop around the tree that was surrounded by tons of presents for each member of the family.

An hour later, all the presents had been opened and the adults were in the middle of picking up all the wrapping paper shreds that now littered the living room floor, when Alexis brought out two more presents.

"I saved these for last because I wanted to see your reaction to them." She said as she handed one to Kate and one to Castle.

With a glance at each other, they both opened the small boxes quickly, each finding a small award ribbon.

"Oh haha, I'm laughing so much. You just had to take a crack at my age didn't you?" Castle said, holding up his ribbon which said 'World's Greatest Grandpa' on it.

Alexis and Ashley didn't say anything, they just turned to see Kate's reaction as she pulled out her ribbon that said 'World's Greatest Grandma' on it.

Kate looked at the ribbon, then at Castle's, then at Alexis, seeing the small nervous smile on her face and the hand resting casually on her stomach.

With a gasp, she questioned the woman she had come to love as her daughter. "Alexis? Are you?"

"Yeah..."

It took a few more seconds before understanding finally dawned on Castle, but when it did, he quickly pulled his oldest daughter into his arms, nearly crushing her with a hug.

"Seriously? I'm going to be a grandpa? Oh, let's ignore how old that makes me feel for a minute. Congratulations!" He released her then pulled Ashley and Kate towards them for a group hug, that was quickly interrupted by a small body wiggling its way between them.

"Don't forget about me!"

"Sorry Em, but guess what?" Alexis said as they broke away from their hug.

"What?"

"You're going to have a niece, won't that be cool?"

Emily just looked confused for a minute before asking if a 'niece' was food, causing all the adults to laugh.

"I guess that's my cue to start breakfast." Castle said as he headed into the kitchen, leaving Kate to explain what a niece was.

Castle still didn't like the fact that his daughter wasn't his little baby anymore, but he was looking forward to getting to spoil his first grandchild.

As he stood over the stove, flipping pancakes for his family, a horrible thought ran through his mind, causing him to run back into the living room where everyone was at.

Kate looked up, noticed the expression on his face and asked what was wrong and he replied with a great amount of horror in his voice.

"I'm too young to be called grandpa!"

* * *

**This was totally supposed to be Alexis centered, but somehow that didn't exactly happen but I really hope that annaluvsu6761 (and everyone else) still likes it!**

**I didn't realize that I didn't mention Martha at all during this story until I got to the end, so just use your imagination for that... **


End file.
